Hernandez, Perry

 

Howdy, everyone! My name is Juan Hernandez, but I prefer to go by “Perry” instead. My pronouns are any, so feel free to use he/she/they as I am non-binary. I am a first-generation Mexican-American Immigrant and also a first-generation college student. I am currently a fourth-year Fine Arts Major at UCLA. The main mediums that I like to focus on are photography and painting, though I will branch out and use other forms of art to express myself such as filming, sewing, drawing, sculpting, writing, and designing. Oil painting is my go-to, but I don’t get many opportunities to use it since it is quite toxic to inhale the fumes if you do not have a properly ventilated space. As a result, I have been gravitating towards film photos. There is something truly magical that is captured with film that cannot be replicated with digital photography. I am excited about this course since I have very limited knowledge of Latinx and Chicanx artists. Almost all of the artists I have been taught in my previous art history classes have been straight, cis-gendered, heterosexual, white men. When I saw the class I instantly knew I had to sign up. I am hoping this class will help expand my repertoire of artists I can pull from for inspiration and reference in future works of mine. It has been a struggle of mine to find artists to look up to and that I can relate to since once again the only artists I have been taught have been European white men. I am also really excited about the Wiki project since I will be able to contribute to expanding the library of Chicana artists. I have a few artists in mind that I feel would greatly benefit from knowing that they have a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to them and their art. I just know it will help make them feel more validated in a space where they are often underrepresented in.